3 Up, 3 Down – June 1, 2021

Welcome to ‘3 Up, 3 Down’, the weekly column breaking down the three hottest and three coldest Orioles players based on their performance during the previous week. It has proven to be an interesting exercise and good opportunity to highlight the highs and lows of a long baseball season. This week comes after series against the Twins and the White Sox.

(You can discuss this on the BSL board here.)

3 Up

Cedric Mullins – .308/.379/.423 (.802), 1 R, 1 double, 1 triple, 2 RBI, 3 SB, 26 AB

Mullins rebounded nicely from a down week. To be fair it didn’t take much to make it onto the good list in the midst of a 14 game losing streak. There wasn’t much to choose from which makes sense when the team is batting .059 with runners in scoring position during that stretch, starters aren’t lasting long enough to even qualify for a win, and relievers not named Paul Fry or Cole Sulser are imploding. Mullins continues to have great at bats at the top of the lineup and has been especially successful when leading off an inning with a .350 batting average and .984 OPS. The most encouraging part of his first 1/3 of the season is that his splits against left handed pitchers and right handed pitchers are pretty closely aligned. He is batting .296 with a .359 on base percentage against lefties and .294 with a .362 on base percentage against RHP. The only difference is about fifty slugging percentage points. He may not be the all-star that he looked like in April but he is establishing himself as a solid regular on this team for the foreseeable future.

DJ Stewart – .150/.261/.600 (.861), 3 R, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 20 AB

Its not often that a player batting .150 for the week ends up in the ‘3 Up’ column but its also not often that the Orioles are tied for the second longest losing streak in franchise history. Last week Stewart did the most to try and end the losing. He hit a couple of go ahead homeruns that we’re ultimately squandered and doubled in a run on Sunday in extra innings when down by two runs but was stranded at third base as the tying run. On the season Stewart isn’t doing enough to be a regular when all of the Orioles’ outfielders are healthy but fortunately for him that hasn’t happened since the opening series of the season in Boston. He has a great walk percentage (87^th percentile) and has a decent ISO (.165) that is getting better as the season goes on and he has been able to catch up to fastballs again but he just hasn’t been able to make enough contact for it to matter. If he can ever just hit enough to bat .250 he would be a valuable player. I just don’t see enough evidence that he’ll ever be able to do that.

Keegan Akin – 0-0, 3.52 ERA, 7.2 IP, 2 BB, 7 K, 1.30 WHIP

It’s especially sad that a starting pitcher who couldn’t make it out of the 5^th inning is on this lit but here we are. Akin finally entered the starting rotation in his fifth appearance of the season, replacing Dean Kremer (see below). He has been better than his ERA makes him look out of the bullpen so it’ll be interesting to see if he can do what the other young pitchers haven’t been able to do and hold on to that rotation spot. He left his first start with the bases loaded and two outs and luckily for his official line Adam Plutko was able to escape the jam, getting a sharp groundball that Freddy Galvis was able to make a great play on to get the force at second base. Bruce Zimmermann had a gutsy five inning start only allowing one run but I thought I would give the nod to the guy who has worked hard to improve from a really rough spring training to get to where he is for now (with some help from lackluster competition). Akin is throwing his fastball the vast majority of the time which is something pitchers have been getting away from recently. Its working for him but for how long before hitters adjust to it? His changeup looks improved from last season so maybe he’ll start leaning on that a la John Means.

3 Down

Dean Kremer – 0-1, 11.25 ERA, 4 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 K, 2.25 WHIP

When one goes up (Akin), one must come down and that would be Kremer pitching his way out of the starting rotation. If it wasn’t for Ryan Mountcastle’s disappointing season at the plate Kremer would easily be the most disappointing part of the season. He showed a lot of promise in his handful of starts in 2020 and combined with being a top 10 prospect in a strong system it looked like he was poised for a breakout season. Player development isn’t always linear, especially with pitchers, so its off to AAA Norfolk for Kremer to continue to work towards being a major league caliber starting pitcher. The first thing he needs to do is stop leaning on his fastball so much and trust his secondaries enough to mix them in much more. He’s throwing his four seamer 18% more of the time compared to last year (57.1% of the time). His fastball isn’t bad, it averages almost 93 mph and has above average spin, but he isn’t commanding it enough to put guys away. I’m still confident that he has the tools to be at least a back end of the rotation starter but it clearly just isn’t going to happen right away.

Chance Sisco – .077/.143/.077 (.220), 13 AB

The Orioles catching tandem has been a real problem all season on both sides of the plate. Pedro Severino can barely catch a ball and isn’t hitting for any power but Sisco has been even more dreadful. He is so lethargic standing at the plate it looks like he needs to start drinking coffee. He isn’t even walking or hitting for power like he has in the past. For the season he was batting .154 with a .431 OPS before being optioned to AAA Norfolk after the weekend. He was throwing runners out trying to steal for the first time in his career but that is not nearly enough to justify a roster spot given everything else he (doesn’t) provide. Austin Wynns takes his place on the roster and he is a guy who I thought would never put on a major league uniform for the Orioles again but while he can’t hit either, he at least can catch the ball and manage a pitching staff. I’d say we may see Sisco back in the big leagues this season but I really don’t think so. Brett Cumberland is an offense first catcher too but one who should at least provide some offense and Adley Rutschman will be at AAA at some point this season, one step away from making his much anticipated major league debut.

Dillon Tate – 0-2, 16.20 ERA, 1.2 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 0 K, 3.00 WHIP

Tate came off of the injured list and looked poised to bolster a struggling bullpen but instead looks very hittable and can’t strike anyone out. Hunter Harvey and Mac Sceroler are nearing their return to the roster and Tate looks like a prime suspect to be optioned to make room for them. He has essentially stopped throwing his four seam fastball and is relying heavily on his sinker. Maybe that is a pitch mix that will work for him but its not fooling any batters at the major league level right now. His stuff still looks good to the naked eye so maybe a trip to the minors wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for him to try and get right. Or he could escape that fate because there are other options that have been equally bad or worse in the bullpen. Shawn Armstrong hasn’t been able to get back to his 2020 form at any point in the season but would have to be designated for assignment since he is out of minor league options.